Canadiens prospect Owen Beck poised to lead Team Canada at World Juniors

MONTREAL— It’s 10:30 a.m. on Sunday and Owen Beck is waiting for his father, Dave, to pick him up in Peterborough, Ont., and drive him west to Oakville.

This ride should take roughly an hour and forty-five minutes to complete, but it will feel longer, as the anticipation of the first practice at Team Canada’s selection camp for the upcoming world junior championship in Gothenburg, Sweden — scheduled for 8:15 p.m. — looms large.

He’ll bide some of his time reflecting on going from being the last player cut at last year’s camp to becoming a gold medalist after his recall to replace injured forward Colton Dach, and then the excitement will begin to really percolate as he contemplates what’s in store for him this time around.

A 20-minute phone conversation with us brings it all sharply into focus. 

It’s in the opening portion of it that Beck, who’s ironically the lone returnee from last year’s Canadian squad, humbly says he’ll do whatever it takes to make this year’s team. It’s the right attitude for him to have, given what he went through 12 months ago — even if he’s a virtual lock for the roster — and it should only help propel him to a major role this time around.

That Beck has grown by leaps and bounds since he showed up at last year’s selection camp should take care of the rest. 

The 33rd-overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft became an OHL champion last spring, made it to the semifinals of the Memorial Cup thereafter, played his first NHL game months prior and navigated his second NHL training camp in the fall with the Montreal Canadiens, and he appears poised to not only make this team but also take all of that experience and channel it into leading it where it wants to finish the tournament.

Beck won’t necessarily need a letter sewn onto his jersey to do that. His role will be out in front, regardless, as he rides into the tournament feeling healthy and, as he put it to us: like he’s played some of the best hockey of his life in compiling nine goals and 21 points over his last 12 games with Peterborough.

Still, when we ask the alternate captain of the Petes about the potential of wearing the ‘C’ for Canada, he pauses to contemplate the magnitude of it.

“I don’t think words can even explain how that would make me feel,” Beck said. “It was such a surreal experience just to be there last year. Growing up, I always watched the world junior tournament. 

“But playing in it? I always wanted to play in the NHL, but playing for Team Canada was just a feat that never even crossed my mind as possible. It just seemed so far out of reach with the talent that was always on that team, so to possibly captain that team this year would make me truly humbled and so fortunate to have an opportunity to wear that letter for such a big tournament. It’s such a huge responsibility, and it’s something I’d be thrilled and honoured to take on.”

It's not something he’d shy away from, which is as good as any reason he’d be an appropriate candidate for the job. 

Alan Letang will weigh that, along with all the other good reasons Beck would be a fit, before deciding over the coming days. 

In the meantime, Canada’s coach told reporters Sunday, after meeting with Beck one-on-one and pushing him and the other 29 players in attendance through the team’s first practice, that the player’s experience will be leaned on.

“He can talk about the intensity of the games,” Letang said, “the importance of the little details.”

Beck is more than qualified to do that.

He didn’t waste any time getting to the little details when he parachuted into Halifax back on New Year’s Day to play in Canada’s quarterfinal game against Slovakia. 

“I was at home for the start of that tournament, and I remember sitting around the TV like I always do, just watching and having this little bit of a bittersweet feeling,” he recalled. “But it wasn’t long after that I got called back, and it made me that much hungrier and more excited to put on that jersey and get out for my first shift. And I don’t think I’ll ever forget the first shift that I had.

“It wasn’t anything spectacular by any means; I didn’t go and score a highlight-reel goal. But given the role that I was in as the 13th forward, I think it was perfect start — I got a shot on net, busted my ass around to chase down the rebound, but they were in the middle of a breakout and I kept my feet moving for a backcheck to stick with the guy and drew a power play. With the role that I was in, I was trying to bring energy, and just putting the boys on the power play with that energy meant a lot to me and set me up to make an impact.”

Beck did in the end, and he took a lot away from the experience, including some valuable perspective.

“I had a lot of big moments leading up to that point, but to be invited to the world junior camp as an 18-year-old is no small accomplishment,” he said. “It’s a 19-year-olds' tournament, obviously. I got sent back after the selection camp, but as soon as an injury occurred, I was right back up there. Just being invited, like I said, is just such a huge accomplishment. And to be able to play for my country at 18 years old in a 19-year-old tournament is just such an honour that reinforces all the hard work that I’ve done. Just another one of those things that drove me forward.”

It was upon Beck’s return from the tournament that he was traded from Mississauga to his hometown of Peterborough. 

It then took him some time to acclimate to the Petes, but, after making his NHL debut with the Canadiens on Jan. 28, he closed out the OHL season with 22 points in 23 games, put up eight goals and 16 points in the playoffs and registered a goal and three points in five Memorial Cup games.

Along the way, Beck was also displaying the details that have always made him such a well-rounded player — winning 58.6 per cent of 1,245 faceoffs last season served as a perfect example of that.

He then carried confidence into Canadiens training camp in September.

But it was rocked a bit with his early return to Peterborough.

“I think I had a really slow start to the season,” Beck said. “I couldn’t quite get out of my own head and figure out what was going on. I suppose going into camp this year I had expectations for myself that were set a little bit too high. Montreal made the decision to send me back to junior for my fourth year, which was obviously the right developmental call. Being in junior as a 19-year-old and playing 20-plus minutes a night was going to be much more beneficial to my development than not playing so much (in the NHL).”

The six-foot, 197-pound centre understood that in the moment, but didn’t quite process it the way he had hoped he would before the puck dropped on his OHL season.

“I felt like I was trying to do too much to compensate for not necessarily the letdown (of not making the Canadiens) but the (feedback) that I received from camp,” he said. “I was probably trying to do way too much, and hockey’s a team game; it’s hard to play on your own every shift.”

Just like Beck did in dealing with the blow of being cut from Team Canada last winter, he hit the reset button.

“It definitely sucked in the moment,” Beck said, “but I’ve just been able to take that and simplify my game and start using my teammates a lot more to open up space for myself. And I think that stretch where I was overcomplicating things really led me to this point where it’s now translated to some of the best hockey I’ve ever played. 

“I think that experience was so key.”

Now he’s aiming to bring it — and what he feels is a vastly improved game — over to Sweden.

Beck has worked hard for this opportunity, refining aspects of his performance that would only better prepare him for it.

“Coming back into Peterborough this year, we don’t quite have as much firepower as we did the year before, so I feel like I’m playing just a lot more in all situations and everything is being taken to the next level,” Beck said. “I was never much of a power-play guy in years prior, but I’m kind of being leaned on in that role this year. Offensively, I’m trying to be a little more dynamic in terms of not being so straight up and down.

"I’m working on cutbacks and changes of pace and attacking on angles, and I’ve always said being able to make reads and make plays quicker is what’s going to get you to the NHL faster. Being able to adapt to systems and making quick reads has really improved for me, and I think my faceoff ability has taken another step this year.”

Beck has pulled 63.3 per cent of his draws, which is second-best among regular faceoff takers in the OHL and first among players who have taken at least 500. 

And he says he’s gotten physically stronger, putting in lots of hours in the gym between games.

That should serve Beck well as camp rolls along and the best-on-best competition nears.

“I’m fired up, I can’t wait,” he said. “I feel like, I’ve just got to lean on what experience I did have from that tournament last year and, if I’m lucky enough to represent my country again, I can try to just help my teammates get settled in with that kind of experience and let them know what it’s like. I’m really excited for all of it.”